San Francisco Frontiers - 'Mini Rodri' Gonzalez brings stability to Man City - Guardiola

City have struggled badly without Ballon d'Or winner Rodri, who suffered a serious knee injury in September.

Guardiola's men have won the Premier League for the past four seasons but currently sit fourth in the table, 13 points adrift of leaders Liverpool.

Gonzalez arrived on the final day of the mid-season transfer window from Porto for a £50 million fee ($62 million) and took little time to find his feet in arguably City's best performance of the season to date against the Magpies.

"I think the presence from Nico helped us a lot," said Guardiola. "The feeling is that the club sign an incredible player for the future in terms of mentality.

"He was in the Barcelona academy and Barcelona's academy is the best in the world in how they teach you the concepts, the body shapes, how to pass the ball, the technique.

"I think in Porto, (coach) Sergio Conceicao helped us a lot to bring into his football the part of being aggressive and be smart and play different type of games. He is so young, 23, like a mini-Rodri.

"How he talks, the personality. There was a moment he was correcting Erling (Haaland), to do this, do that. When that happens, it's nice because you think, 'ok, in the next six or seven years we'll have Rodri, we'll have him'. That will give us more presence and more stability which this season, of course, we missed."

Despite Gonzalez impressing his manager, it was another of City's January signings that was the star of the show.

- Marmoush hat-trick -

Omar Marmoush scored a first-half hat-trick with his first goals for the club since a £59 million move from Eintracht Frankfurt before James McAtee rounded off the scoring late on.

"He's a player that we missed. His movement in behind, his pace. Normally, we have the players to get the ball to feet. He's a guy who likes to attack the space and help us to create more," added Guardiola.

"But when we play the way we play today, everyone is better. Even the manager."

Victory lifted City back into pole position to qualify for next season's Champions League.

By contrast, Newcastle's European ambitions suffered a major blow as they sink to seventh after a third defeat in four league games.

In between that run, Eddie Howe's men convincingly beat Arsenal 4-0 on aggregate to reach the League Cup final and he called for the Magpies to be more consistent if they want to be considered an "elite" team.

"I think we have days where we can look far from the team that we are when we're on it. It's a real frustration for us because to be an elite team, you've got to be consistent," said Howe.

"You've got to figure out ways to be competitive, even if you're not feeling your best or as cohesive as you want to be.

"Sadly, today it looked like a difficult start to the game for us, but then we never responded really in that first half. It was a tough half to watch."

R.Moore--SFF